


Haunted

by StormbornQueen



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 21:09:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16395143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormbornQueen/pseuds/StormbornQueen
Summary: They're both ghosts of an underground world of death and lies and pain. It's only fitting that they find solace in one another.





	Haunted

Thanos is gone. Lost souls retrieved. Yet still, Bucky Barnes feels incomplete. Who was he before the snap? A soldier, trying to be redeemed? A villain that didn’t deserve a redemption arc? Steve said he was a hero. Maybe in a past life, before the arm, before the Winter Soldier. Now, he’s not so sure. Now, Steve is gone, and the shield hangs heavy in the main hall at the Avengers compound, and Bucky isn’t sure of anything anymore.

He stands, gazing at the shield, the loss still fresh. He wasn’t sure how many days had gone by, but it felt like just yesterday.

_I thought you didn’t trade lives, Steve. Why’d you trade yours?_

He senses a warm, hesitant presence behind him, but doesn’t turn. She watches him in the half-light of dusk, and his chest begins to ache.

“James.” The name is honey spilling from her lips, and it sends a warmth through him. His memories are still scattered, but the touch of her beneath his fingers blossoms in his mind.

“Ava. I thought you’d have left already.”

“I’m not quite ready to leave. Natasha said I could stay.” She moves to stand beside him, her body still; no fluttering of light, no fading in and out. There’s a new strength to her that radiates in waves. It’s tantalizing, drawing him in. He turns to look into her eyes and is reminded of how he got here.

 

~.~.~.~

 

James Buchanan Barnes does not remember much from his time with HYDRA. Faces are blurred, voices muddled, as he tries to recall how he was unmade. The only thing familiar to him is the weight of a gun, the cold of a blade, the deep red of blood, the pain of being erased, and… a ghost; grey and shivering, fading in and out of the light, a gentle hand on his arm, a soft whisper in the night.

Even when he was tucked away in Wakanda and healing, the memories refused to return. He’d get flashes, here and there, mostly of the night he killed Stark’s parents. It isn’t until he starts to come to peace with the man that he has become, that he could finally stop trying to remember and move on. Here, at ease and relaxed, the memories flooded in. Strange memories which returned in dreams; an old road at dusk, a pale ghost in the weeds.

 

~.~.~.~

 

He’s fresh out of cryostasis, ready for his next mission. HYDRA officers bustle around him, prepping gear and going over last minute plans. Alexander Pierce himself walks into the room, and everyone goes silent. A wave of his hand, and they all scatter, leaving just him and the soldier.

“Barnes, you’ll be working with a new asset on this mission. She’s inexperienced, so watch her back. I expect a whole mission debriefing on how she operates in the field. She isn’t to be left behind either, dead or alive, understood?”

Bucky nods, his stare hard as he stretches the fingers on his metal arm.

“Good. Well, off you go. She’s waiting in the copter.” Pierce shoos him from the room.

Buck strides through the corridors to the landing pad, securing the mask over his face. The helicopter is at the ready, blades sending shivers through the dense fog of morning. He jumps in the open door and slides into a seat, his gaze landing on the figure sitting across from him. Their suit is grey and an off-white, their mask an eerie assortment of red eyes.

“Welcome aboard, Agent Barnes!” blares the pilot, over the sound of whirling blades. “Meet Ghost, your new asset-in-training!”

Buck grits his teeth- the pilot already talks too much, he’d like to throw him from the helicopter and just fly it himself. The figure – Ghost – looks at him for a moment, then turns away to watch the world speed by. _Good_ , he thinks, _at least she’s quiet._

 

~.~.~.~

 

He’s not sure how often he works with Ghost, as his memory is wiped after every mission, but her mask, her voice, are seared into his mind. As the memories come back to him, so does she.

 

~.~.~.~

 

They’re on a mission in a remote part of Europe, a country he can’t remember, a month he can’t name, but the snow is fresh and the cold bites at his face. The target has already been eliminated, but their extraction point was breached, and now they’re on their own. Bucky knows he can make it out, but he’s not sure about Ghost; her training isn’t as advanced as his, and she’d taken a bullet to the shoulder. Pierce’s words are hammered into the back of his mind, “She isn’t to be left behind, dead or alive, understood?” No, of course not. If anyone got their hands on her, they’d have access to an anomaly. Ghost was unlike anything he’d ever witnessed.

Turning to look over his shoulder, he noticed she was lagging behind, her steps faltering, her body flickering here and there as she tried to get a grip on her phasing. Sighing, Buck turned around.

“Ghost. Can you focus enough to stay solid if I pick you up?”

The red eyes of the mask regarded him. “I’ll be fine.”

Her voice is pained, but it holds an accent, and it flutters to his ears like a song.

“No.” Bucky reached out and scooped her into his arms, her frame brittle against him, and _hot_. “You won’t.”

She didn’t say anything in response, and that was alright with him. She only phased twice before they got to the helicopter, and both times he was able to catch her before she hit the ground. Once in the air, he peeled back her suit to examine the wound.

“Through and through. You should be fine if I just stitch you up.”

Ghost grunts in response, reaching to remove her mask. A sharp intake of breath and her arm falls away, the opposite hand clutching at her shoulder.

“Here.” Bucky reached up and pulled the mask off, her braided hair tumbling out, sweat glistening on her brow. Her eyes caught him off guard; jaded green, almost blue in the light. Like wildfire, flashes of blue eyes and blond hair erupt through his mind. Laughing, wading in knee-deep water, hazy sunshine. The Winter Soldier shakes his head, trying to clear the images. Ghost looks at him with something that could be concern, and he snaps back into action.

He stitches the wound without a sound, and Ghost doesn’t look up to meet his gaze.

 

~.~.~.~

 

The first time he sees her kill, it sends a strange sort of dread through him. She’s standing in the dense weeds along the river bank just below him. A body lies at her feet, a patchwork of blood on his chest and a still beating heart in her palm. She lets out a feral scream and the heart phases to the ground. Her gloved hands are covered in blood; crimson against ivory, it’s a crude shock.

There’s anguish in her eyes, when she takes off her mask. Anguish and rage and fear and…something he can’t quite place.

“You’re still human, Ghost. They can’t take that away from you.”

Ava blinks, wondering if she had just imagined the Winter Soldier whispering words of reassurance.

“Ava,” she whispers, “my name is Ava.”

 

~.~.~.~

 

They’re awaiting extraction in a dingy apartment outside of Cairo. It’s hot and dusty, and the split-level they share is humid and dim. Ghost stands from the couch and says goodnight, her slight figure lingering as if she’s waiting for something. He regards her, watching her green eyes dance in the low light of the room, and something clicks. _Ava._

“Goodnight, Ava.”

She freezes, her gaze turning to meet his dark eyes, watching her from beneath the long locks of hair that have fallen into his face.

“James.”

She says his name on the stairs that night. He’s not sure when someone had last called him James. Probably back when he was Sergeant Barnes, and right before he fell from the train all those years ago.

Her lips are sweet when they brush against his. Her skin soft, even where it’s bruised purple and black. His name falls from her lips, a faint whisper in the night.

 

~.~.~.~

 

The next memory is a haze. He’s not sure how they got there, but they’re running through a cemetery, his hands covered in blood, her suit painted red. Bucky is shaken, his breathing shallow, a voice echoing through his mind, over and over… “ _I’m with you till the end of the line, Buck._ ”

He stops before a series of old graves, doubled over, trying to catch his breath. Ghost shimmers beside him, all shifting matter as she raises her hand to his shoulder. “Barnes? We need to keep going.”

Her soft is touch; it sends vibrations through his shoulder and down his metal arm. He looks at her with wild eyes.

“Barnes?” She lifts her mask, her eyes scanning his face, sage green meeting murky blue.

“Where am I?”

Ghost blinks. The Winter Soldier has never faltered during a mission, at least, not that she knows of. “On mission, Agent Barnes.”

“Who are you?” He stands and shakes her hand off, stepping back.

“Barnes, it’s me, Ghost. Remember?”

“Ghost. Asset of SHIELD. The enemy.” The steely exterior of the Winter Soldier slips back into place, and Ghost flickers nervously.

“Agent Barnes, I’m an asset! Sent by Director Pierce!”

Bucky surged towards her, knocking her to the ground. He pinned her beneath him, lifting his metal arm to deal a blow, but she phased through him. She locked her arm around his neck, holding her legs around his arms and torso, trying to hold him back. “Barnes! I’m Ava!”

Bucky stops struggling against her. “Ava?”

“Yes, Ava. Remember?” She loosens her hold on him, getting to her feet and stepping back, removing her mask. Those green eyes hold his gaze, and…he remembers.

“Ava. Ghost. I’m sorry. I’m…compromised.”

“It’s alright, Barnes.” She moves closer to him, taking his still human hand. “Are you good?”

He takes a deep breath, centering himself. “I think so.”

His thoughts race with images of a training center, a blond-haired cadet too small and frail to make it to the front line, “ _I’m with you till the end of the line, Buck._ ” And Ava. Her messy hair, sharp voice, the soft touch of her hand, the shimmer of her always shifting body, and those green, green eyes. Then, Pierce. Harsh commands, white hot pain, raw anger.

Bucky swallows and stands tall, squeezing Ava’s hand. Together they stand, two ghosts like mourners among the weathered graves.

 

~.~.~.~

 

Now, he sits on a chaise lounge chair, looking out the floor to ceiling windows of the Avengers compound. The blue and red of his suit is caught in the gold light of the setting sun, and it sits heavy on his skin, constricts around his metal arm. He has big shoes to fill.

He’s no longer a ghost. Most of his fondest memories have returned, he’s got a grip on his sanity, and people respect who he’s become and have forgiven who he once was. The shield will take some getting used to, as will being called “Captain”.

The patio door opens and Ava steps through, flowers clutched in her hands. She smiles at her collection of sunflowers, tulips, and impatiens that she grew in the back garden. When she looks up and meets his gaze, her green eyes sparkle and her smile widens. She’s no longer a ghost either. She can control her odd abilities now, thanks to the help of Janet and the particles Scott retrieves from the quantum realm. She no longer feels like she’s being ripped apart from the inside out and has even agreed to train alongside Bucky and his team. She’s hesitant to forgive herself for her past, but he reminds her that it wasn’t her then, not entirely. She’d spent her whole life being controlled and persuaded to do the bidding of SHIELD (well, HYDRA…), she deserved a chance at a normal life, a chance to be the hero for a change, should she so choose.

“The suit looks good on you, James.” A slight blush creeps onto her cheeks.

He moves to stand before her, plucking a sunflower from her hands and slipping it behind her ear. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

“I’m sure you’re ready, and I know he’d be proud. No matter what, I’ve got your back, Agent Barnes.”

Bucky quirks a smile at that, leaning in, watching her lips…but is suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the spider boy.

“Hey um Captain, sir, listen-”

Ava jumps to the side in surprise at the intrusion, phasing through a table, her cheeks colored pink.

“Woah she just went straight through the coffee table! I didn’t know she could do that!” Peter gushes, his mouth full of pizza as the slice dangles precariously from his fingers.

“Parker. Was there something you needed?” Bucky has his best glare in place, arms crossed.

“Ummm nope, I think I’m good, you two can just get back to it, I’ll see ya later! Sorry, bye!”

Peter all but scurries from the room, and Ava hides a giggle behind her hand. Shuri pokes her head into the room a moment later.

“What Peter meant to say was, there’s pizza in the dinning hall, Tony and Pepper picked it up on their way in. Get it before Thor and Brunnhilde come in from training!” With that, she’s gone, chasing Peter down the hall.

Bucky turns to Ava and rolls his eyes. “I’m not sure how I’m going to survive training a bunch of teenagers.”

“Oh, Captain, I’m sure you’ll manage just fine.”

They both smile, without regret, without remorse. Two tortured souls, robbed of the simplicities of life, have found solace in healing one another.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I have no clue how this ship popped into my head. Yet, here we are, and I'm obsessed with the thought of Bucky and Ava healing together and finding redemption and being soft, happy, loving people. They deserve it, damnit!! Also, I'm trash and enjoy mushy pairings (so I apologize if they seem more off character, I'm weak and can't help it).  
> I wrote this with the intention that Steve dies in Avengers 4 (brb, sobbing), and Bucky picks up the mantle of Captain America. I can see it happening!


End file.
